Paper long abstract:

With the end of the campaign to Khiva and the expansion of the sphere of direct influence of Russia in Turkmenistan it became necessary to revise the form of government in the Krasnovodsk region. In this regard, it was decided to create an administrative region under the command of one person endowed with civil and military powers. In 1874 the Transcaspian Military Division was created with two sections of Mangyshlak and Krasnovodsk commissioner districts (pristavstvos). The creation of the Transcaspian Military Division was the first serious step of tsarism in establishing administrative power in Western Turkmenistan. At the same time, it was one of the first experiments in the field of administrative and economic management. The function of commissioners resembled a police supervision of the local population.

There are documents showing how the Turkmen population of the interior regions sought to establish friendly relations with the Russians. However, the Qajar authorities enjoying the active support of the British government and despite the apparent inability to control their Turkmen lands made attempts to consolidate their position in Turkmenistan. It seems relevant to consider the issues of relations between the Qajar authorities and the Turkmen within the framework of the reactionary foreign policy of Persia and Great Britain on the administrative registration of the Russian power in Turkmenistan. The actions and interests of the British establishment, both in Central Asia in general and in Turkmenistan in particular, were most often dictated by the Anglo-Russian rivalry.

Before and by the time of its accession to Russia, Turkmenistan did not represent a single political whole - the Turkmen lands were fragmented between neighboring states - Persia, Khiva and Bukhara. The fact of territorial and tribal disunity of the Turkmens living on the border with the key countries in Central Asia prompts researchers of international relations to raise new topical issues in the history of the region under study.

The study is funded by the Russian Science Foundation (project No.19-18-00162 «Central Asia and International Relations in the 18th-19th centuries») and carried out at the Leo Tolstoy Institute of Languages and Cultures.